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Earned Media Meaning

Definition: Mentions of a brand, product, or person by an independent third party, generally in a favorable way.

Example of Earned Media

The Value

You can boast about yourself, or your mom can say how smart you are. We all know neither of these have any real-world impact.

Being worthy of external recognition and praise is a great way to build your brand.

More mentions equals more people wanting to learn more about what you do, and how you can potentially help them.

Earning this type of attention from a publication that has a high degree of relevancy (meaning their audience is similar to yours) can be incredibly valuable for your company's growth.

How to Get More

Simply put, you have to deserve it. It's called "earned" for good reason.

1. Do something worthy of being talked about.

This could be hosting an event, volunteering for a charity, or doing something unique and wholesome.

If your company or a team member has done achieved something new or done something particularly interesting, it has a chance of being talked about.

Earlier this year I saw a brief presentation by a local university student group team that worked on a new type atmospheric testing equipment.

Upon completion, it was physically launched by NASA, and you can bet this got some attention!

Certain business milestones may also get some press (keep reading).

2. Build relationships

Invite a reporter for your local newspaper or business / industry publication (preferably one that covers relevant topics) to coffee, and ask about what they are looking for. Don't ask for anything, just learn about them.

Perhaps you can make some connections for them, and in time can get your business talked about when there is something significant to report.

Grand openings, new hires, X years in business are all topics commonly mentioned in local media outlets.

Participate in online forums and groups (Quora, Medium). Build rapport and influence by being helpful.

3. Help a Reporter Out

If you haven't heard of it, Help a Reporter Out (aka HARO) can be a great way to get some media attention on your expertise.

Basically, it helps you as a source of information connect with reporters and journalists looking for content, quotes, etc for their stories.

The HARO website

I regularly find opportunities (called Queries) relevant for Nexus. Two of my submissions (called Pitches) were accepted within the first week of subscribing.

The pieces typically take a few weeks to get published, but are a great way to build backlinks and position yourself as a thought leader.

Update: Having used HARO for about a month, I'm getting a 15-20% acceptance rate for my pitches.

Sometimes they are on the fringe of my expertise, or my perspective may be atypical, so I realize those are long shots. On the other hand, an atypical response I gave apparently stood out and was included in an article on getting more subscribers.

To make the best use of your time, it's probably best to stick to answering queries closely aligned with what you know (and wish to be known for).

In recent weeks, there has been slight uptick in searches for my name, though it's a bit early to tell how significant this is.

What's important is that search engines are beginning to more strongly correlate myself and my brand with the topics I am an expert on, and make a living from.

If you've read our article on brand building, then you know why that is important.

4. Find Influencers

You can likely find authority figures in your industry (that are not competitors) that would be willing to either share your content, or get your input on a topic.

Content writers that tend to create articles which contain quotes from experts are a great opportunity for you, the expert, to share what you know.

These opportunities can be found through searching online.

One of the best connections for us has been a content publisher who posts queries on HARO, accepted my pitch, and then invited me to continue the relationship by contributing to other pieces.

If you are interested in these opportunities but having a bit of trouble finding them, Nexus can help.

Show Off

It's okay to make a bit of a splash (tastefully, of course) by sharing that you have been quoted as an expert.

This can be a good way for your audience and network to hold you in higher esteem.

You can create a simple graphic with a screenshot of the quote (or typed out) along with credit to whomever published it.